I remember a time around 10 years ago when I couldn’t phantom why people would not respond back to emails, texts, phone calls, Facebook activity, etc. However, over the years it has become more common place for people to be reaching out to me for all kinds of things. I have since worked jobs that require follow up and responding to various types of communications and requests. There is now so much correspondence that it is helpful to use a software just to manage the inflow of requests (I use Nozbe for all my task-management). There are so many things that one could possibly do that things come from all directions and we can get distracted and easily forget to respond to something. I am no longer and have not been recently living in a world where I wait for someone to call, text, or email me. With that being said, here are just a few reasons you may miss responding to people and how to fix them.
You are just too busy. This one is simple, you are too busy doing too many things at once that things fall through the cracks. The solution to this is to work your way towards a more manageable schedule so that you are not running around like a chicken without your head.
You don’t have a system in place. Everything can have a system to make it more efficient and effective. For example, you can set a time every day to review texts, emails, etc. if you find yourself forgetting. You can set multiple check points throughout the day if that makes it better.
It is about priority. You have all kinds of priorities. This is the same for communications. Frequently there is communication that does not seem important and that is what falls through the cracks. Also, when something urgent comes up that can derail us and we can forget a piece or two of communication.
You don’t want to be bothered. I figured I would throw this one in. There are times when we are not in the mood to be bothered with a certain person, a certain topic, a certain organization, etc. You do have a choice here. Maybe it is time for you to make a decision to stop communication with something that may not be beneficial overall. This could just be a mood that you are in at the time and you need to remember later on.
We all have had these times where we forget a message here and there. Some people are much better at getting back to you than others. Some of us change over time. I’ll be honest, I am not as good as I used to be at this. I occasionally miss communications all together, but try to make that a rare occurrence, and I usually do. I should also mention that sometimes a person may not see a need to respond while another does. That isn’t time management related at all, but rather just a point of discussion that you have. Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding getting back to people. I know that ADHD does play a role in this as well for me and it is easier for me to get distracted and to forget things when a lot is going on.